Monday, October 13, 2008

Last week, while looking at my traffic stats, I noticed an unusually large number of visitors from Singapore. I followed the trail to a blog called Xiaxue, which had linked to my chocolate lava cake video. As I read the post, I was shocked to see the blog's author, Xiaxue, had sent me a comment, but that I never replied!

Even worse, I noticed the website had received numerous awards as Asia's top blog, and that Xiaxue was a bona fide Internet superstar. As you know, I religiously answer every single comment and email I get (except for the ones I don’t), so I quickly emailed her to find out about her ignored comment.

She quickly replied and said she wrote this long teary comment about how my recipe had aided in her quest to get hitched, and she told me to keep on blogging. I was so excited to get an email from such an important person for a change, instead of the usual stuff I get from you people.I thanked her, and offered to film any recipe she wanted. She asked for creamy mushroom pasta that she gets out, but wants to make at home. So, this video recipe was her food wish. I watched a couple of her videos and learned that she likes to be called Yan Yan, which explains the recipe's name.

By the way, she said that Xiaxue is almost impossible to pronounce if you're not Chinese - which I took as a challenge, and as you'll hear in the clip, I try on several occasions. Enjoy!

Anyway yeah, your recipe sounds like the type we can get here. Not sure about the sherry though. I suspect only the high end restaurants here will use wine to cook this dish as alcohol costs a bomb here in Singapore.

As for chicken rice, there isn't one standard chicken rice recipe. Here's a link to give you an idea of what many people call the national dish of Singapore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainanese_chicken_rice

Dear Anonymous "Last time" Visitor: Fondness of good food, well prepared, and a sense of (Chef John's) humor - 2 key ingredients for your browsing enjoyment while visiting this site. Use it, or YOU lose it! Get it? Or, get outta here!

I had hoped to watch the video one more time before making this dish but actually didn't do too badly with the technique, my own deviation was that I added the stock and cream simultaneously which made for a runnier sauce but the taste was there and we enjoyed the dish.

Oh my goodness. I just made a variation on this to suite my tastes and I thought it would be a crime not to share. I used a third of a bottle of amber ale instead of the sherry, a couple basil leaves instead of tarragon, homemade beef stock instead of chicken, and for the cheese I used half parmesano reggiano and half aged gouda. Also threw a tiny bit of rosemary in there. Delicious. As always,thanks for the inspiration Chef John.

is there anything you can use to substitute for the sherry wine? i remember reading somewhere that oj or pineapple juice could be used as a substitute. thanks for the recipe, hopefully i can try this out soon.

Hi Chef,I cooked this the other night. It was delicious. If I was to do some advance prep on this recipe for a dinner party, would I cook this to the point just before adding the cream? Or is this a recipe that must be cooked start to finish?

Absolutely amazing! We live to eat great food and this dish was restaurant worthy in our opinion! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get fresh tarragon today so I used 2 dashes of dry fennel just before the fresh herbs went in. WOW! Thank you Chef John, Liiz & Doc

Nice! I read your comments about replacing sherry with marsala and I like-y that idea a whole bunch! Gonna make this tomorrow with fresh egg pasta and use the marsala, and replace chives with green onion then use pecorino instead of parmasan (but less quantity as it is much sharper.) I think we're on to something! I'll get back in a few days and let you know how it turned out. Also gonna use baby bellas instead of the shitakes (because I'm frugal like that, and...) because I think they pair better with the marsala. Fingers crossed!

Aaah, Chef. I made your Creamy Mushroom Pasta tonight for our anniversary dinner (grilled ribeyes, asparagus, fresh snapped green beans, homemade dinner rolls and homemade peach ice cream. It was a wonderful meal. The star was your recipe for the mushroom pasta. It was the only bowl that was cleared of its contents. My hubby asked me to make it again - at least twice. Thanks for your contribution toward a beautifully romantic evening